Congregations undoubtedly do amazing work. We have health services, food banks, children’s programming, leadership development, summer camps, long term care facilities, and programming to support every subsector of society with almost any challenge (not to mention supporting our communities with spiritual grounding, emotional support, and connection). If we were for-profits with these fantastic results, we would be shouting this from the rooftop. Our people would brag about

When I think of what it means to be a flourishing congregation, many images flood my mind. I think of a church that is growing, praying, on mission, united, and on the list goes. The one aspect of being a flourishing church that has kept me intrigued over the past few months however, is how a flourishing congregation welcomes people to be part of their faith community. I am not talking about how a church transitions Christians disgruntled with their former church into new (d

I’ve spent 35 years as parish pastor and seminary professor looking for the secret to congregational vitality. I’ve tinkered with various in-vogue tools for enlivening worship, attracting youth, engaging the community, caring for each other, and so on. And most have had some benefit. But for me, real congregational change has usually happened after a mind-altering experience. One of these took place at a parish I served in Calgary. My colleague brought in a group of lay p